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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

[Annat]

Annat lies forty miles north-west from Christchurch, between Sheffield and Springfield, and extends from the Waimakariri river to the Malvern hills. The district is almost wholly occupied by settlers, who cultivate the agricultural areas, and depasture sheep and cattle on the grazing lands. Most of the home-steads are surrounded by large clumps of trees, which afford shelter and add beauty to the landscape. The settlement of Annat dates back to the later sixties, when the property now owned by Mr. G. F. Wright was taken up by Mr. Fisher. Other settlers of the period were Messrs Taylor, Joseph Searle, and John Searle. At that time part of the district was included in the Homebush run. There is a flag station on the railway line, which runs through the centre of the district, and close to the railway there is a special Government settlement, cut up chiefly into five-acre and ten-acre allotments. At the township there is a large public school, and a police station, with a residence for a constable, who has charge of the East Malvern district. Annat has, also, a creamery, a general store, a blacksmith's shop, and a post and telegraph office, with two mails a day.

The Annat Public School stands in extensive grounds, well sheltered with ornamental trees. There are fifty-six names on the roll, and an average attendance of forty-eight pupils. The head teacher has one assistant.

Mr. James Dawes, B.A., Head Teacher at Annat public school, is a native of Devonshire, England, and was educated at Plymouth, and at St. Mark's Training College, London, and graduated at Cambridge, where he obtained his degree of B.A. in 1873. In that year he came to New Zealand, under an engagement as an assistant master at Christ's College, Christchurch, where he remained for five years and a half, when he was appointed headmaster of the Lyttelton public school. In 1890 he was transferred to Russell's Flat school, and appointed to the Annat school in 1897.